January 28, 2013

Just recently I have been writing some pieces about suicide in this country. Some of the statistics I found was that sixteen percent more Americans took their own lives in 2010 than in 2000. That comes out to 12.1 suicides per 100,000 people compared to 10.4 per 100,000 before.

Information from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is saying that guns are still the number one method of suicide. Guns, Poisoning, and hanging account for 93 percent of all suicides in the US. An interesting fact that was found is that suicide by firearms dropped almost one quarter among 15 to 24 year olds but it raised by almost the same amount those aged 45 to 59. Some other interesting facts are that suicide rates are getting higher and faster among women than men and faster among whites than in non-whites. Also it is noted that in terms of age the suicide rate went up 39 percent among people 45 to 59 and it dropped with people 70 and older. More people die by suicide in the US than in car accidents and that makes suicide the leading cause of injury deaths.Sometimes suicidal thoughts might need attention from rehab.

Today I got the news that another NFL football player committed suicide right in front of his coaches. The linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs shot his girlfriend then he drove to the tram training facility and killed himself in front of the coach and general manager. This 25 year old did indeed go out in a blaze but not in glory. He shot his girlfriend right there in front of her mom. This one suicide follows a string of former NFL players who have taken their own lives. Right now because this news is so fresh they are saying there may be risk of brain injury from repeated concussions suffered by veteran NFL players in a game that some people are saying has grown too aggressive and brutal. I truly hope that in the short future we do not hear that this football player was not on drugs. This behavior was very irrational. Kansas City Mayor Sly James decried the violence as “part of the tragedy of urban living in this country. Handguns all over the place, people blowing themselves away, and others. At some point, we have to get a handle on this kind of stuff. We are not doing a good job of it.” At this time we are all confused about why he did this suicide.